There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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Poisoned in Jakarta

Nasty case of gut-rot yesterday. I reckon the pembantu (maid) must have tried to poison me after I had told her to keep to her promise and work over the Lebaran holidays. Feeling a lot better today, although I still ain’t taking any chances at the office:

But I’ll find out soon enough. Cos all my incoming telephone calls are automatically recorded onto my computer hard drive – even when I am not at home - using a wonderful little piece of software that I got off a friend. 

It’s amazing some of the stunts these pembantus try to pull on you - and then when you inform them that you know all about their devious scheming (cos they can’t resist telling some truckdriver boyfriend over the phone how they are cheating their employer) you should see their cunning smile evaporate in an instant!!! 

Actually, the current ones are honest enough, so they’ll get a decent bonus, but a couple of years back I learnt from the phone recordings that the little tyke was taking a piece of crockery every time she made a visit to the local wartel (public telephone booth) and then “depositing” it with a friend! 

 So I later confronted her with the recording and told her the police would be involved unless she agreed to forfeit her salary for the five months or so she had been working for us. 

She did agree of course. Tears streaming down her face. Nope, crime doesn’t pay. Well not always...

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